In 2024, following the global advocacy for women’s participation in politics, a report by Dataphyte revealed that only 23 women won chairmanship seats in the 2024 Local Government Elections.
Recall that the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered a judgement granting financial autonomy to the 774 Local Government Areas in July 2024, which spurred state governments to scramble to organise local government elections in their states to access federal allocations.
According to Dataphyte “In the 2024 Local Government elections, 29 states with 618 Local Governments participated. Of this number, only 23 women emerged as local government chairpersons while 595 men emerged as chairmen. This gives a ratio of 3.7% of women to 96.3% of men emerged in the 2024 local government elections.
“The state with the highest number of female local government chairpersons is Benue State. Benue leads with 9 female local government chairpersons out of 23, making it the state with the highest number of women in this role.
The report noted that the involvement of men and women in grassroots representation aims to represent the interests of people at the grassroots level. However, the aftermath of the election shows that only a few women occupy these positions according to the results.
“The highest political positions women have attained across the three levels of government in Nigeria are the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the legislative arm and Minister in the executive.
At the state level, the highest position women ever held is the post of the state deputy governor and speaker of the House of Assembly. Women have been elected as chairpersons to lead the local government unit.
“In 2024, there are 451 males and 18 females in the Federal House of Assembly and House of Representatives. This shows that more men are represented in the political decision-making processes compared to women.”
“In the executive arm of government, there are 7 women and 41 men. Also, under the Judicial system, there are 7 men and 3 women in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the issue of under-representation of women in the Nigerian parliament is not new. It is a recurring issue” the Report stated.
The report in its representation of women in Nigeria’s 3 tiers noted that the local government, being the nearest to the grassroots, has been described as the most fundamental type of political arena where participatory democracy and good governance can be achieved.
However, it is the tier with the highest female representation compared to state and federal executive positions of a governor and president respectively.
“This imbalance in women’s political representation can lead to gender-biased policymaking and neglect of issues that affect girls and women. Also, this underrepresentation is against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3) and the United Nations, which advocates for women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public life”, the report added.
Nigeria must do more to ensure that there is greater representation of women at all levels of political decision-making.
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